Marbleseed Conference 2026 - Session

Ready to level up your pest and disease management this growing season? Join us for a hands-on workshop packed with practical online tools and helpful resources to identify, monitor, and manage vegetable pests and diseases. Whether you're a seasoned grower or just digging into organic vegetable production, this session has a shiny new gadget for you.

• Not sure what you're looking at in the field? Discover online resources & diagnostic services through UW-Madison to help identify your pest or pathogen.
• Want to stay on top of pest and disease risk? Learn how to use interactive online tools to monitor and forecast vegetable pest and disease risk throughout the growing season.
• How do you manage your pest organically?

Explore current and upcoming online guides for strategies to manage and prevent pests and diseases in vegetables. Bring a phone or laptop to follow along with each step-by-step tutorial.

Songbirds are more than just beautiful to see and hear, they can also play a vital role in sustainable pest management. In this interactive session, Wild Farm Alliance will share how farmers are successfully using nest boxes to attract beneficial birds that are valuable pest control allies. You will hear directly from a farmer who has seen real, on-the-ground benefits–from fewer pests to a healthier, more balanced farm ecosystem.

We'll roll up our sleeves to build a nest box. This hands-on activity will guide you through assembling a nest box, and if you’d like to bring one home to install on your farm, they’ll be available for $20 each. Whether you’re new to habitat practices or already experimenting with conservation strategies, you’ll leave inspired with practical tools and knowledge to bring beneficial birds onto your farm.

Healthy soils are the foundation of successful organic farming, but the value of soil testing depends entirely on how the sample is collected and how the results are used. This interactive workshop will walk growers through why soil sampling matters, how to collect samples that truly represent their fields, and how to use soil test data to guide management decisions.

Goals :
• Understand why proper soil sampling is critical for nutrient management
• Identify sampling methods that best fit organic and diversified farming systems
• Recognize common sampling mistakes that lead to misleading soil test results
• Understand what key soil test values mean in practical terms (pH, OM, P, K, Ca, Mg)
• Feel more confident using soil test data to make organic fertility and amendment decisions

Join the Organic Fruit Growers Association and fellow growers for a discussion of the best fruit varieties for organic growers. Share your experiences with different varieties and learn from other growers. In small groups, we'll discuss varieties of specific fruit crops, including apples, grapes, strawberries, pears, blueberries, and emerging fruit crops.

Panel description coming

“Investing is Organic” will highlight solutions based on a long term approach, both from a policy perspective as well as his current efforts to revolutionize finance to increase producer opportunity and improve and rebuild rural economies.